All Those Practice Notes, Then Harmony

Brigid Ann Blakeslee and Jared Harris Otto were married Aug. 10. The Rev. Karl Davis performed the ceremony in New Haven at St. Thomas More, the Roman Catholic chapel at Yale.

Ms. Blakeslee, 27, is a research engineer, focusing on robotics and perception at United Technologies in East Hartford, Conn. She graduated from Yale and received a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

She is the daughter of Carol A. Blakeslee and Edward E. Blakeslee of Oradell, N.J. The bride’s father is a building-code and zoning inspector for the Township of North Bergen, N.J. Her mother is a third-grade teacher at Oradell Public School.

Mr. Otto, 38, is an environmental and process engineer at Dunn Paper, a manufacturer of tissue paper in East Hartford, Conn. He graduated from Lehigh University and studied chemical engineering as a graduate student at the University of Connecticut.

He is a son of Carolyn H. Otto and Jeffrey B. Otto of Brooklyn, Conn. The groom’s mother is a kindergarten teacher at Pomfret Community School in Pomfret, Conn., and is the director of the Village Green Preschool in Brooklyn, Conn. His father retired as the vice president for research and development at the Butcher Company, a manufacturer of wax and other floor finishes in Marlborough, Mass. His father was the longtime volunteer fire chief of the Mortlake Fire Company in Brooklyn, Conn., and is the president of the Quinebaug Valley Emergency Communications, a firm in Killingly, Conn., that manages emergency dispatch services for much of Eastern Connecticut.

Ms. Blakeslee and Mr. Otto, who have both played bagpipes since they were children, met in August 2015 when she contacted him about potentially joining the Manchester Pipe Band, a competitive group for which he was then the pipe major.

He immediately suggested that she join the band for a competition the following month, but she had another commitment and so instead he invited her to practice with the group. Both said they felt an instant connection when they met in person.

“His care and concern for others was immediately evident to me, just from those first conversations,” she said. “He’s very generous with himself, and with others, sharing himself and his time. As I was getting back into piping, he spent a lot of time helping me get up to speed.”

Mr. Otto said he was interested in Ms. Blakeslee right off, but was hesitant to initiate a relationship with someone in the band.

As they got to know each other over the ensuing months, however, they found themselves spending hours talking after band practice.

“It was kind of a slow-burn situation,” Mr. Otto said. “It was really clear around January that something was going to happen sooner or later between us.”

Around St. Patrick’s Day, after a performance at the parade in Hartford, Ms. Blakeslee invited Mr. Otto to dinner.

The couple still disagrees as to whether that was their first date, but the next time they went out, there was no question.

The couple shared their first kiss after that second dinner, and, perhaps even more significant for Ms. Blakeslee, they held hands that night for the first time. As members of a pipe band watch the movement of the pipe major’s fingers much as members of orchestra watch the conductor’s baton, she had developed a special appreciation for his hands, and told him so that night.

“He can help me feel grounded and calm and happy like nobody else, and that really makes him different,” she said. “Everything lined up so perfectly between our common interest and shared background. It felt like more than fate, this unbelievable meant-to-be thing.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page ST12 of the New York edition with the headline: All Those Practice Notes, Then Harmony. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe